Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Sanity Beret

I was afraid blogger wouldn't let me log in after not having posted for so long but it still works, yay! Where have I been? Alive and kicking but really busy. I started grad school last fall and took a full course load on top of working 40 hours a week. There was no time for anything not school related, no knitting, no blogging, no watching movies, no socializing. I got home from work and hit the books. I woke up on the weekends and started to study right after breakfast. It was hard but it was also fun and I kept surprising myself by pushing the boundaries of what I thought I can do further and further. There was however one point right after midterms where I needed to knit something so my mind could relax a little and my senses enjoy something other than a plastic keyboard. It needed to be quick and useful so I picked the cabled beret from Debbie Bliss new magazine and soft non-itchy wool. It took me just a day to finish it and it is perfect. I've been wearing it a lot since then, but during our annual Bodega Bay outing last weekend it was actually too hot (we've had crazy warm temps in California the last week) to wear.It was a lovely day, not a cloud in the sky. The seals were having fun bodysurfing the waves, it was amazing to watch. I could stare at the waves rolling in all day long.Pattern: Cabled Beret from Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine Fall/Winter 2008Yarn: 2.5 skeins Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran, color 13Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm and US 8 / 5.0 mmMods: I knit this in the round instead of flat to avoid seaming (to keep the pattern correct I cast on two sts less).I'm not sure I would use the yarn for a sweater (it was difficult to get the sts even though it may have been me), but it feels very soft without being itchy on my head. After wearing it now for a few months I think it was a great choice for the beret.

I know I'm late to this post and the party, but I have missed you and your posts, and stopped by just on the off-chance that you were posting again* - and you are!

Hope school is going well. Looking forward very much to reading your posts, however far apart they may be spaced.

P xo

*(still haven't figured out bloglines ... yup, a techno-ignoramus - I told my boyfriend my computer was always slow when it was making that 'tickly' noise, and he almost fell off the sofa laughing and told me it was the hard drive. And?)

any suggestions for making this beret on larger needles, say 8s and 10-1/2s? I know you would lose about 3 cables in the process. It is absolutely lovely as is, but I am an impatient knitter and am getting frustrated with the pattern as is...any help would be great!